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Mozilla Labs Wants To Monitor (Volunteers') Firefox Use

Posted by timothy on from the voluntary-counts-a-lot-for-me dept.

Howardd21 writes "PC World reports that Mozilla Labs wants 1% of its Firefox users to voluntarily provide information about how they use the browser, and their web browsing habits. This would be done through an add-on named "Test Pilot" that collects the information and associates it with some demographic information that the user has provided. Unlike other data collection utilities that software developers may include to provide usage information, the add-on will follow the same open source concept that Firefox adheres to, allowing the market to better understand what is being collected. Mozilla Labs stresses privacy when discussing how they will collect, store and use the data, including publishing it for other researchers to to analyze."

6 of 118 comments (clear)

  1. Re:How about add needed features instead? by Shados · · Score: 3, Interesting

    And allow admins to control stuff like configuration, homepage, etc. Where I work, they modified firefox from source to allow some of these things. Supposingly tried to contact the team (big, big, big company) and they didn't even want to talk, so we did it on our own. Works fine, but (amusingly enough), IE is used as the primary browser just because we have can have our way with it, on a global scale, while Firefox, we need to play with the source to get it to do what we need, and while we actually DO that, its a pain in the ass.

  2. Why? They already have reams of feedback by AaronLawrence · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Users have submitted thousands of bugs, and then voted on them.
    Yet those votes don't get acted on. Mozilla fixes bugs or adds features when "something else" tells them they should - often, what's cool for developers or what some big company wants.

    Why would they pay attention to the statistics generated by this program when they don't pay attention to the much more focussed statistics already in Bugzilla?

    --
    For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert. - Arthur C. Clarke
  3. Re:Anonymous coward by dvice_null · · Score: 2, Interesting

    How many tabs you have open? How often you use back button? Do you save tabs? How often you restart your browser? etc. This information can be used to optimize Firefox for YOUR needs. Assuming you belong to the majority.

  4. Like Joe Pesci says in Goodfellas.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    "Fuck you. Pay me."

    1. Re:Like Joe Pesci says in Goodfellas.... by strikeleader · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Why would anyone volunteer for this, Nielsen pays people for this.

  5. statistics by shnull · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Are to most corporations and governments nothing but a means of convincing their consumers and subjects that what the government dictates is truly the only way and is really what they want (this is not judgment, merely a please-think remark)

    --
    beware he who denies you access to information for in his mind, he already deems himself to be your master (SMAC-ish)